Weekends are No Substitute for Summer (but I still love them)

When school started last month, I had big plans for weekends. It's hard for me to give up the freedom of summer, so I have to start the year off with the thought in my mind that it will still be possible for us to do fun things. And yeah, it is still possible, but  not quite as simple and streamlined as I had envisioned. Go figure.

The biggest obstacle seems to be that this is apparently a bad time of year for my kids health-wise (allergies, asthma, coughs). We have been to the doctor a ridiculous number of times in the past month. Tomorrow Mattie has one last (I hope) follow-up appointment, and then I HOPE we are in the clear for awhile. Although I don't know, we can't quite seem to get Lucy's asthma under control. And Connor is still coughing. But for all that, no one has missed a day of school yet. (knocking on wood like a maniac)

Now Connor has started up an activity which has Friday night meetings. Lucy was interested in taking a class or two on Saturday mornings, but I've decided to table that for the time being considering that she is ultra run down with all her recent asthma flare-ups. So I guess at least our Saturdays and Sundays are in the clear for now, until basketball games start up in a couple months.

This isn't to say I'm complaining. Our weekends haven't been bad (if unmemorable...). But there were so many things I never got to during the summer, that I thought just maybe I could use fall weekends to squeeze some of that stuff in yet. Well, it's not looking too good for that, but I am still hoping to get in at least one weekend getaway this month, while we still can. It's in the works!

As it turns out, this weekend ended up being pretty good. Friday night I worked, as in drove someplace that was not my house and worked for a paycheck. It was a one-time gig that was a lot of fun and will hopefully turn into more. It's been awhile since I left the house to go to work, so that was pretty momentous for me. All the kids stayed the night at my mother-in-law's, so I even got to come home to a quiet house. I couldn't keep my eyes open when I got home and ended up crashing really early (note: before midnight is really early for me). I set my alarm, just in case, never thinking I would actually sleep more than six or seven hours. But after several nights of four hours of sleep, I was more tired than I thought. I wound up sleeping for an astonishing 10 hours! I could use a few more of those.

Saturday morning, Chris had a job to do, so I tagged along with him so he'd have some company for the drive. I brought my Kindle and read in the car while he worked, then we went out to lunch together, while the kids were at the movie theater with their Meema (Chris's mom). Shortly after they came home, Chris's mom called to say she had play tickets that she couldn't use for that night. Her husband was working late, and she was coming down with a cold and just didn't feel up to it. Chris was working (again) and then had plans to go see his friend's band, so my mother-in-law offered to come over and babysit so I could go to the play with Bethany. This was, remember, after she had kept them all overnight Friday night, taken them all to the movies Saturday afternoon, and had them with her until after 3 p.m. And she didn't feel well either. That is the kind of mother-in-law I have.

One-on-one opportunities like this don't come up very often, so I was really happy to have the time with Bethany. Plus I love the theater and would go to every show that comes to Detroit if I could.

Let me real quick mention what I think is a long-lasting effect of my summer road trip. I use to be much more fearful and nervous of driving certain places. Downtown Detroit, especially at night, would be one of them. Or anyplace I'm not that familiar with. Now I've been to this particular theater many, many times, and I'm sure I've driven there too, if only a few times. But in the past I would have been really nerved up about driving there, especially without another adult present to help navigate. This time, I could feel myself starting to fall back into that pattern, and I quickly reminded myself that I successfully made it across the country and back with nary a mishap. I could totally make it 20 minutes to downtown and be absolutely fine. And of course I was. I didn't even have a GPS with me. Okay, I lie. I did use the navigation on my phone to find my way back to the freeway on the way home. But it's okay to be resourceful! And in my defense, any Detroiter will tell you that signs are pretty sparse and vague downtown. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I think more people would willingly spend time downtown if there were more signs! And signs like "Cultural Center" or "New Center" barely count, because who the heck knows what that means, especially out-of-towners?!

Alright, I digress. But my point is simply that I'm glad our road trip led me to a place where I'm more comfortable driving, and even not knowing exactly where I'm going.

And my other point is that even though our back-to-school weekends haven't exactly been all I've dreamed of and more, they have been fun and relaxing...and I'm grateful for every one of them! If things go according to plan, the next couple weekends should be full of fun and adventure.

If you're wondering about the play Bethany and I went to, look for another blog post very soon!